Matchmaker
by MsDubstep
Summary: Deeks takes it upon himself to help Eric win Nell's heart. But the two guys will soon find out it won't be easy and they'll encounter some obstacles along the way. Rated K for slight language. **Chapter 5 has been rewritten slightly**
1. Chapter 1

Matchmaker

By Bridget N

It had been a good day in Ops for Eric Beale. A successful facial recognition of a terrorist armed to the teeth linked him to the murder of a Marine in Santa Monica. Eric was able to help Callen find the murderer and also break up an Afghani terrorist cell in the process. Eric was very fortunate to have people that work so well together, and he was doubly lucky to call them friends. Sometimes they were more like dysfunctional family but he had great respect for them nonetheless.

The family's newest member, Nell Jones, really shined today as she worked quickly to get blueprints of where the team needed to search. Her talent was a great asset to everyone involved. Eric admired her greatly. He only wished he could tell her that he admired her as much as she admired him. Except that this admiration was more than professional. There were countless times where he found himself glancing at her a little longer than he should as her coworker and friend.

Just like now. She was bending over to get her bag that was sitting on the floor. Eric's eyes hurt from the sheer speed he had to exert to look away as Nell stood back up.

She turned to him. "I'm heading out. Don't stay too late."

Eric looked up and was amazed at how fast she whisked herself out of the door. He cursed to himself as he jogged after her.

"Hey Nell!" Eric called after her. It had been a while since they'd hung out and it never hurt to ask.

Nell turned around and gazed at him with those deep hazel eyes, and for a few seconds, Eric forgot what he was going to say. But he managed to gather up some confidence before Nell had a chance to look at him like he was an idiot.

"You...uh...want to grab some dinner or a movie?" He asked her meekly.

Nell gave Eric a smile, but it was an apologetic one. "I'm really sorry, but Kensi and I have plans."

Eric inwardly kicked himself, but he managed his own smile. "All right. You girls have fun then."

Nell nodded. "We'll get together another time, I promise."

She gave him a chaste hug and quickly walked away. Eric sighed to himself once Nell was out of sight.

"Eric, you're such a buffoon."

He heard a man's laugh behind him. Eric cringed and turned to see who had heard his grumblings.

Marty Deeks approached him, clapping him on the shoulder with a sly grin.

"No way." He said. "We are not letting the girls have all the fun tonight. Come on, drinks on me."

"On you?" Eric looked at Deeks dubiously.

"I'm not the cheap bastard everyone thinks I am." Deeks replied, giving Eric a look. "Besides, this is serious. We need to have a talk, man to man. Brother to brother."

Eric had a feeling Deeks witnessed his failed attempt to get Nell to hang out with him. He wasn't going to risk being judged or ridiculed. He shook his head.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Eric started to walk off but Deeks stopped him with a grip on the shoulder.

"Eric, come on, man." Deeks said. "I'm not one to judge cause trust me, I've been where you are. It's not fun. I just want to help."

Eric turned to Deeks, thinking for a moment. Deeks was known to be a big flirt. It seemed to Eric that he flirted with other women just to piss Kensi off. He'd been known to show restraint when needed, but there were times when Kensi needed to rein him in. A smack on the back of the head usually did the trick.

However, Eric did notice the times Deeks was successful in wooing a lady and sustaining a relationship, even in had been a cover most of the time.

Eric's feelings for Nell weren't fake at all. Nell had many qualities he was looking for in a woman, and if by some miracle Nell had the same feelings for Eric, he planned on keeping her around.

"What's in it for you? " Eric asked.

"Really?" Deeks gave Eric a look. "Can't I just help a friend out? I hate to see you look like a lost puppy whenever Nell can't hang out with you, or when another guy hits on her. It's really sad actually."

Would Deeks be able to provide sound advice? Or would he end up pulling overly smooth moves that made him look like a total tool? In the long run, however, it was worth a shot. And besides, if he didn't like Deeks' advice, he got a free drink out of it. Who would pass that up?

"Let's go." Eric said with a reluctant feeling in his gut.

Deeks grinned. "Great. I'll meet you downstairs in ten."

Eric watched Deeks hurry downstairs. He sighed to himself. What was he about to get himself into?


	2. Chapter 2

The bar that Deeks and Eric went to was loud, dimly lit and full of scantily clad women. Smoke filled the air, almost making Eric choke. It was barely tolerable here. But for tonight, he'd bear and grin through it. He needed all the help he could get.

They sat down and got a couple of Guinness. Then Deeks turned to him after taking a hearty sip.

"All right man. Time to talk about Nell."

Eric simply nodded, feeling the unease from earlier come back.

"I know you mean well with the gifts and flowers and everything." Deeks began. "But I think it's time to step your game up a little bit. I think the same old moves are starting to get old."

"All right, Romeo." Eric said with a smirk. "What do you suggest?"

"Maybe taking things to a different level." Deeks continued.

"Okay..." Eric made a turning gesture with his hand, urging Deeks to continue. The man was frustratingly vague sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you might want to tone it down." Deeks said. "Maybe she feels smothered and that's why she's backed off."

Eric cringed a bit amongst his confusion. "I thought women liked that sort of thing? You know, gifts and flowers."

"Oh, yeah." Deeks nodded. "And trust me, there will be time for that later, whether you want to or not. But despite what they say, you can have too much of a good thing. It sort of loses its value after a while."

Eric made a face. "We're not talking about a car or a house. We're talking about Nell. She's priceless."

"Precisely." Deeks nodded again.

"But what about the whole 'losing its value statement-"Deeks cut him off.

"Forget about that." Deeks said. "That was the beer talking."

"So what's your excuse for the rest of the time when you say something stupid?" Eric said, his smirk returning. "You drank too much salt water at the beach?"

"We're getting off subject."

Eric grinned in triumph amidst the banter. He felt a bit more loosened up now.

"Seriously, though." Deeks said, bringing them back to the subject at hand. "I think it's time to try something new. Like say…I don't know…asking her out?"

"You don't think I've tried?" Eric said, his frustration coming back slightly. "Every time I try to ask her out or try to express how I feel about her, my words get twisted and I end up sounding like an ass. It's like I'm in high school again."

"Come on, man." Deeks shook his head. "You two have known each other how long now? Two years?"

"This is a recent revelation, all right?" Eric said, exasperated. "She irritated the hell out of me the first three or four months we worked together. And she still does but I don't let it get to me nearly as much."

"That sounds pretty familiar." Deeks said, chuckling.

"It's only been this past year that I've noticed my attraction to her." Eric continued. "I'm not sure when it started but I'm not sure what to do with it, either."

"The one thing I've noticed about Type A women like Nell is that they want a man who knows what he wants and just goes for it." Deeks said. "You take risks all the time."

"We've got to treat this delicately." Eric pointed out. "This isn't some case. This is my friendship with Nell and I don't want to screw it up."

"We?" Deeks raised his eyebrows. "So you'll let me help you?"

Eric sighed. "Callen doesn't date, Nate is out travelling the world being James Bond, and Sam scares me. You're my only hope."

Deeks shrugged but smiled. "I'll take the back-handed compliment for what it is."

"No offense." Eric said, feeling slightly guilty.

"Nah, it's fine." Deeks waved him off, and then in his best Jack Nicholson voice, "I can handle the truth!"

"That was horrible." Eric made a face, however he couldn't help but laugh. The man was like a puppy who had just peed on the carpet. You're pissed for like 30 seconds and then you notice he's still got his charm. Eric finished his beer and relaxed, gazing out the window thoughtfully. Maybe Deeks knew what he was talking about after all. At least, he hoped so.

**Chapter 3 coming up very soon! Thanks for reading and for all those that reviewed, thank you!**


	3. Chapter 3

While Eric and Deeks were drinking away at a smoky bar in East LA, Nell decided to stay in. Kensi was at her apartment, watching Steel Magnolias, only because Nell couldn't stand Top Model. Kensi had wondered why, and she immediately regretted it when Nell went on a 5 minute rant saying that America only liked to look at a size 2, size 6 at the most, and they were all tall and big breasted. She finished off her speech by quietly cursing her small chested and short frame. So Steel Magnolias it was.

Kensi came back with two more beers and a big bowl of popcorn just after the commercial break started. She then proceeded to pause the DVR and look at Nell suddenly. Nell returned Kensi's look with a confused stare.

"…What?"

"Because it's about to get to the sad part and I don't want to make you more uncomfortable than I have to."

"Okay, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kensi smiled. "That's because I'm not talking about a what."

Nell hung her head. Now she know what Kensi meant.

"Kens, I know you've pretty much appointed yourself my 'love coach' or whatever, but I really don't want to talk about Eric right now."

Kensi sighed. "Avoiding the subject, or him for that matter isn't going to work."

"So, what did I do now?"

"I think you're taking this whole 'playing hard to get' thing a bit too far."

"Kens, I've already told you this before: I've always ignored guys I've liked. It's always worked…well, all right, usually."

"Nelll, you've got to give Eric some kind of a sign or he'll wander off and find another girl." Kensi responded. Nell rolled her eyes.

"I don't think that will be a problem anytime soon." She said. "I like him, but have you seen how he's acted? Asking me to hang out all the time and getting me gifts all the time. It's a bit overwhelming, and I really don't know how to respond to that."

"Shutting him out won't help, I know that." Kensi advised. Her eyes reflected an understanding to Nell's frustration. "I know you've been hurt in the past, but sometimes you have to take the walls down and let people in."

"Oh geez." Nell rolled her eyes again. "Have you been talking to Nate again?"

Kensi chuckled. "This is from past experience. I've been there, and I've had to learn the hard way."

"You mean like with Deeks?" Nell smirked. Deflection was always a good back up plan.

"Yeah, you're not going to change the subject on me, because it's not about me and Deeks." Kensi shook her head, although there was an undeniable tint of red creeping up Kensi's neck.

"One subject at a time, you're right." Nell nodded. "But what do I do, though?"

"You're making this way too complicated, Nell." Kensi said. "Just give him a shot and quit shutting him out. You don't have to rush things, but at least give it a chance. Who knows, it just might be worth it."

Nell was silent. Kensi turned the movie back on and let her think on the words that were spoken.

'Eric's a great guy.' Nell thought to herself. 'Do I really want to pass this up?'

"If things ending up working out with me and Eric, it'd be your turn." Nell said with a smirk.

"My turn?" Kensi was the puzzled one now.

"Your turn to stop pretending you don't like Deeks flirting with you."

Kensi went silent and very red.

"Oh what's wrong, does the cat have my 'love coach's' tongue?" Nell was enjoying seeing the tables turned. What can she say? She'd always been competitive.

Kensi could only glare.

"I hate you."


	4. Chapter 4

Nell walked into the Mission the next morning with a nervous feeling she just couldn't shake. There was no doubt that her talk with Kensi had a profound effect on her. Kensi was right. It was time to stop playing coy and just go after what she wanted. Except this wasn't an advanced college course or a job at a top research facility. It was someone she really cared about. She felt as if she had a lot to lose if things went south.

She willed herself to just relax. That was the problem in the first place. She was just too tense, and she tended to put too many walls up and defend them with biting sarcasm and secrecy. Nell hated feeling vulnerable. However, she wasn't getting any younger, and she realized that she couldn't keep this up much longer. She and Eric had known each other for close to 3 years now. If she kept this up, Eric would get scared off, and that's the last thing their relationship needed, both their personal and working relationships.

With a sense of ease coming over her, she let the doors hiss open. Eric swiveled around in his chair at the familiar sound and smiled at Nell as she walked in and sat down at her station.

"Good morning, Eric." Nell returned the smile that always lifted up her day. Things could be falling down around her and Eric's gentle nature would always comfort her.

"Morning." Eric and Nell's eyes locked for a moment and then Eric continued, leaning back in his chair.

"How was girl's night?" Eric asked, his smile never leaving him.

Nell shrugged. "It was pretty good."

"Did you two party it up?" Eric grinned playfully at Nell. Nell felt her instinctive crumble a bit. Why did he have to be so adorable? She felt herself smile again.

"Not really." She admitted. "We just stayed at her place and watched movies."

Eric nodded and turned back to his computer. "Honestly, that sounded better than hanging out at a loud smoky bar. That's where Deeks and I went last night."

"Yeah, I'm not much of a bar person either." Nell replied. "Not since even Hetty drank me under the table that one night."

Eric grinned. "Now that would be something to see."

Nell looked at Eric with a curious glance. "And why's that?" It would be interesting how Eric responded to this one. Watching his mouth open and then close again trying to think of a suitable response elicited a smile of her own.

"Uh…because…Hetty is awesome at everything?" Eric stuttered out. "I mean, she's experienced. Not that you aren't, it's just...um..."

Nell shouldn't be enjoying this. She should not take enjoyment making Eric squirm. But it was just too adorable seeing him think of a non-offensive response.

Nell shook her head to get that train of thought derailed rather quickly. She felt a bit bad now. Eric was a great guy and he didn't deserve her busting his balls all the time. It was just a natural response with guys she really tended to have feelings for, something she really needed to work on.

"You know what, never mind." Nell cut him off from his nervous ramble. "It was a stupid question."

"Well, not really." Eric looked at her, smiling reassuringly. She felt herself blush with part embarrassment, part flattery. She tried to tell herself that it was the heat of the computers making her heat up, but she couldn't use that excuse all the time. Not that she would ever need to, but she always liked to have a reason for everything. That was the curse of being so detail oriented.

Now she was the one feeling nervous. Favoring a subject change over continuing this train wreck of a conversation, she got up and gave Eric a thin, half smile.

"I need to run a couple of errands." Nell stood up. "I'll see you later."

Eric gave her a curious sideways look but nodded. "Okay, see you."

She walked quickly out of Ops and headed downstairs. She needed to pick up some files to incinerate anyhow. She thanked her lucky stars she actually had a legitimate excuse, although Eric seemed to have called bullshit with his little sideways look he gave her. He knew her too well.

This was going to be harder than she thought. She needed to dig herself out this rut, and fast. For now, she'd blame Eric's adorable smile and off beat humor for making her so flustered. It worked for Kensi when it came to Deeks, after all.

Later that night after Eric finished his work, he headed downstairs and towards the door tiredly. It was a long day and he just wanted to sit at home with his Xbox and order takeout. It would make him feel better after the day he had.

He felt like something was off with Nell, and he wondered if he somehow did or said something. It wouldn't be the first time with her or any other woman he was interested, sadly. He'd asked her what was wrong, but she said everything was fine. Eric knew better.

Eric passed by the bullpen and saw Deeks at his desk, going through his usual mountain of paperwork. Deeks looked up at the sound of Eric's flip flops.

"What's up Romeo?" Deeks grinned. "How'd it go with Nell today?"

"Famously awkward." Eric replied, strolling over and sitting at Sam's desk.

"Really?" Deeks asked.

"Yup." Eric confirmed, putting his feet up casually without even realizing it. "She's been acting weird all day today. I couldn't think of anything I said to make her feel that way. Of course, this is me we're talking about."

"Did you ask her?" Deeks asked, turning to face his friend.

"She said everything was fine." Eric replied.

"Listen to me, my friend." Deeks said. "When a woman says nothing's wrong, 90% of the time she's lying, especially to men."

"What do I do to get her to tell me what's wrong?" Eric asked, embarrassed by the fact he was so clueless in this situation.

"Not a damn thing." Deeks replied, giving him a matter of fact smile.

Eric felt like he ran into a brick wall when Deeks said that.

"Huh?"

"The trick is, wait for them to tell you. If they trust you, then eventually they'll spill the beans. All you have to do is act convinced."

"And that's worked for you?" Eric looked at Deeks dubiously. Nell was full of mystery, and he never knew what he'd find out about her, and when. Waiting could take a while.

"Well, it's not a foolproof plan." Deeks admitted. "Sometimes a little charm helps too. But most of the time, you just got to be patient, man. Trust me it's worth it. Plus, you don't want to push her and piss her off."

"Speaking from experience?" Eric asked, although he already knew the answer. Deeks was much more adept with the ladies, which is why he was Eric's only hope, and even that felt a bit dubious.

"I'm a man who's dated his fair share of women and then some…so yeah, pretty much." Deeks replied.

"You are right about one thing, Deeks." He said thoughtfully. "She is worth it."

Deeks grinned and nodded, and it gave Eric a sense of comfort. He may have had bad luck like Eric was having now, but it was nice having a friend to have his back.

"Thatta boy." Deeks leaned over and clapped Eric on the shoulder.

"I hope getting your ass kicked is worth putting your nasty feet on my desk." A deeper voice resounded from behind the wrought iron wall behind the bullpen. Eric slowly swiveled around to find Sam, very displeased.

Eric quickly got up, swallowing nervously.

"I'm just going to go…uh..."

"Clean up my desk?" Sam prompted.

"Yes." Eric immediately answered. He ran up to Ops to get some Windex. He used it to clean the computer screens, but it would do.

It seemed like both he and Nell were distracted lately. He knew the answer to his own distraction, but he wanted to find Nell's. Whether it had anything to do with him or not mattered little to Eric. Maybe it was nothing, but it was better trying to help than to brush her off. After all was said and done, she was still his friend, and even if she didn't feel the same way about him as he did her, her friendship meant more to him than anything, and he didn't want to mess it up. So for now, the waiting game commenced.

Hell, he'd waited this long. He might as well keep on going.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Deeks headed to work early to get a good work out in. He tended to focus better if he'd worked out in the mornings to get his adrenaline going. It also sharpened his rapier wit to better match himself against his fiery partner Kensi, who always had something smart-assed to say. Not that he enjoyed that, oh no. It was just part of the job.

'Oh yeah, right, Deeks. Get over yourself.'

Slamming the locker closed, he strolled back out to the gym, and saw he wouldn't be alone this morning. Kensi was already clocking in at least 50 miles an hour on the stationary bike. Deeks started toward thef automated fighting machine everyone loved so much, twisting his muscled torso back and forth to stretch out.

"Good morning." Kensi said, the stress of the workout showing in her voice, but just barely.

"You're a sneaky little ninja." Deeks said as he shook his head with a grin. He went over and got a pair of boxing gloves and then started up the fighting machine, setting it on one of the higher settings. "Is that a requirement to work here?"

"Well, if it is, Eric would be out." Kensi said, grinning as well.

"True." Deeks took a fighting stance, and the spar began. Deeks took a deep breath, allowing his mood to become serious. It would be difficult to do with Kensi around. Always was.

"Speaking of Eric," Kensi continued as she stepped off the bike. The glisten of sweat on her body was more pronounced now that she wasn't in rapid motion, and it made it all that harder for Deeks to concentrate. He punched mightily on the firm padding of the machine while the harsh male voice of his automated opponent barked out orders.

"Hmm?" He at least had to give her some acknowledgement, even if he was trying mostly not to notice her.

"Come on, don't be so humble." Kensi chided gently. "You're trying to set him up with Nell, and I think that's sweet. Unfortunately, it's going to be a lot harder than you think."

This gave Deeks pause. Now he was curious, and he stopped his workout to look at her.

"How do you know?" He asked. Kensi smirked.

"I just have a hunch, that's all." She shrugged, and then she reached down to the floor to get her water bottle. Deeks' eyes drifted to her backside of their own volition, but managed to snap back elsewhere in the room as soon as she came back up to a standing position. He was getting good at this…or so he thought.

"Did you enjoy the view?" Kensi looked at him, not entirely displeased from where Deeks was sitting, but not very amused either. It was cute when she gave him that look.

"How did you-"Deeks was cut off.

"Know that you were staring at my ass?" Kensi finished.

"You were looking at the floor. One often looks at the floor when they know they're guilty. You need to learn how to be more subtle. Sort of like how Eric needs to be with Nell."

"How many hints can the guy drop, Kens?" Deeks protested. "He's fallen short of actually telling Nell he's crazy about her, and he definitely doesn't want to do that. And wait a minute…" Deeks grinned. "Are you saying it's okay to check you out?"

Kensi gave him a look. "Don't change the subject. Look, smothering a girl with flowers and compliments doesn't always work. What Eric needs to do is just man up and ask her out. It's been way too long. It's crap or get off the pot, right?"

"A better metaphor could be said about it, but I agree." Deeks said, chuckling a little, and then came to a realization. "You're setting Nell up with Eric, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I have been for the last few weeks." Kensi folded her arms. "It's Eric's move, you know that right?"

"What can I say, he's worst with women than I was when I was in college." Deeks shrugged.

"You're bad with women now." Kensi countered. It only earned a grin from Deeks.

"We'll see about that, Kenselina." Deeks said. "Seriously though, we got to try to push these two together. You got any suggestions?"

Kensi pondered this for a moment. "I might have a couple of ideas. Get back to me later. I've got to think on this one. But I'm not so sure about this…you playing matchmaker? Isn't that sort of like Tiger Woods as a marriage counselor?"

"Ouch!" Deeks pretended to clutch his heart. "Come on, Kens. These two are positively in love! I hate to see them just dancing around each other. And just because I've struck out doesn't mean Eric has to. Besides, I know you're a romantic at heart, or else I wouldn't know how many times you've watched Titanic."

"45?" A smaller female voice chimed in. Nell peeked in the gym door.

"You get an A for effort, but…" Deeks paused for a moment. Holy crap, Nell was right. He usually forgets such trivial details about a person. Nell never forgot anything, so she had an excuse. It was very strange for him. Kensi and Nell high fived in triumph.

Nell smiled at the two. "Nice try, Deeks. Listen guys, we have a case. We have an FBI agent waiting at the boatshed with Callen and Sam, and they need all three of us. We all leave in 20 minutes."

"Got it." Kensi nodded. "Thanks, Nell."

The three of them walked out of the gym; Deeks and Kensi to their respective showers and Nell back to Ops presumably. Once they were all ready, they took Kensi's car out to the boatshed. They all arrived within 10 minutes, and Callen and Sam were sitting in the main room with a tall man with brown hair that was slicked back and piercing brown eyes. His black suit was neatly tailored. He stood up and shook the hands of each of the new arrivals. It was Deeks' imagination perhaps; he could have still been riled up after his verbal sparring match with Kensi, but he could have sworn the man's eyes lingered on Nell's a few seconds longer as he took her small hand and gripped it cordially.

"I'm Special Agent Timothy Jackson from the Cyber Crimes unit." He started. "I've been assigned to work with NCIS on my current case."

"This is Special Agent Kensi Blye, Marty Deeks who is our LAPD Liaison, and this is Nell Jones, our intelligence analyst." Callen gestured at all of them as he introduced them.

Agent Jackson smiled. "The pleasure's mine."

They all sat down around the table, except for Agent Jackson. A moment afterwards, Eric's face cam came on the flat screen. He was waiting with an expectant glance at all of them.

"Ah, there you are, Eric." Callen remarked, and Eric gave a little wave. "We can get started. Agent Jackson?"

The man in question nodded and began.

"Michael Tomlin was a security guard at Thompson Hines and Associates. He was found dead yesterday morning. Tomlin was a Navy reservist based in San Diego. His service record has a couple of black marks on it. He got caught with weed in his bunk in 2009, and in 2010 he was disciplined for assaulting someone on base. This guy could very well have enemies."

A pale ghost of a man's corpse showed up seconds later on the screen. He had multiple deep red and purple lines all across his neck, along with heavy bruising on his face. Eric's voice chimed in.

"The coroner realized her autopsy this morning. Cause of death was strangulation. The bruising that you see were wounds sustained by at least two people beating him before one person strangled him. He has defensive wounds on his knuckles as well, meaning he tried to put up a fight but was overpowered. I have tried to hack into their security feed, but their system is closed circuit so I can't hack it from the outside, and I couldn't find any other camera footage from outside the building that shows the attack."

"We've been looking at Thompson Hines for a while now." Agent Jackson chimed in. The man looked very confident, his deep voice showing authority. "Thompson Hines is a systems information company. We have reason to believe that someone there has been hacking into several up and coming corporations based here in Los Angeles. They are all chemical manufacturing companies, and they've all earned a place in the Fortune 500 list this past year."

"We've talked to all of the people in charge of cyber security at all of the chemical companies. They've told us that so far nothing's been stolen out of their servers so far; the hackers just wanted a peek. But whatever the hackers wanted to know, someone was willing to kill to keep it quiet."

"Eric, have you been able to access their servers?" Nell asked. Everyone looked at her surprisingly. Nell usually didn't ask the questions such as that one, only Callen or the other agents. Agent Jackson smirked, folding his arms.

"Not yet." Eric replied. "They are definitely an IT company worth their salt; their firewalls are locked very tightly. I'll keep trying, but I'm not sure how long it'll take."

Callen stood up. "Eric, we all know your skills. But I'm going to suggest a different solution here. We need someone on the inside. Someone who can gain access into their servers directly."

"And luckily, they're hiring security specialists, according to my guys in Cyber Crimes." Agent Jackson looked directly at Nell with his piercing eyes, smiling a bit. Deeks looked over at Eric. As he anticipated, he wasn't pleased by Agent Jackson's stare at Nell, judging by his slightly narrow eyed glance at the man. But Jackson didn't notice as he continued, advancing slowly towards Nell a few steps, his stare never wavering.

"You seem like a take charge kind of woman, from what I've just heard. And I've heard your skills praised by your team."

"You want me to apply for the job." Nell stated matter of factly.

"Exactly." Callen nodded. "We need to attack from the inside. We need to find out what Thompson Hines is looking for and if the company has anything to do with Michael Tomlin's murder. Deeks, Kensi, you two stake out Thompson Hines and keep alert in case something goes down. Tomlin lived with his girlfriend. Sam and I will talk to her."

Deeks, Kensi, and Nell acknowledged him with a nod, and Deeks took one more glance at Eric before his image cut off the big screen. His lips had been puckered slightly in a barely noticeable grimace. He couldn't hide from Deeks. He was a profession when you got down to it but he definitely wasn't blind, especially when it came to Nell.

Agent Jackson stood up. "I'll keep you all updated from my neck of the woods. This ought to be fun."

Nell gave a cordial nod to Jackson. "Thank you."

Jackson gave a lopsided smile to Nell as she walked away with Kensi and the others. His eyes lingered on her as she walked away for a few moments. Deeks knew instantly he was checking her out. He wasn't blind either; Nell was an attractive woman. She was short, but not every man cared for tall curvy women. Jackson's eyes had lingered on her petite, slender frame. Deeks had to keep from calling Jackson out on it. It wasn't his place. But he would be witness to Eric's slightly lowered mood. He was always that way when he had competition for Nell's affections.

Kensi was right. Playing matchmaker wouldn't be easy.


End file.
